Happy nanny= happy family

A nanny who feels appreciated in their role will be happier, healthier and more confident, which can only do great things for your family! If you are eager to show your nanny that you appreciate her, here our out top tips!

Communicate
Setting a tone of open and regular communication with your nanny can help her and you address issues at an early stage. Encourage your nanny to keep a nanny diary where she can write down things that have happened during the day and anything she'd like to speak with you about. 

Activity:
Why not sit down with your nanny today and do a review- ask her about how she is feeling, if she is having any issues, and what she feels is going well.

Establish clear expectations
It's very important that you take time to really think through what you want your nanny to do for you. Clear expectations from day 1 will help your nanny do her job to the best of her ability. It makes a nannies role harder if the boundaries are changing regularly or you are adding additional duties to her role.

Activity:
We recommend you purchase My Nanny Toolkit to help you establish expectations and discuss them with your nanny.

Trust your nanny to do the right thing
Everyone wants a confident nanny who uses their initiative and can be trusted to make decisions. In order to help your nanny gain this confidence, it is important that you encourage your nanny to make her own decisions. Your nanny should have a list of required duties to complete and should be able to do this without 'micro management' from you.

Activity
If you are not happy with the way a nanny is doing something, avoid 'telling' her how you'd prefer it to be done. Instead, note it down and discuss it with your nanny at a weekly feedback meeting. This might make you realise how often you give you nanny little 'tips' about how you do things! You might realise not everything on your list is important to discuss with your nanny. Small housekeeping issues, such as how a dishwasher is loaded, clothes are folded or food is cooked, can often be overlooked.

Create a positive discipline strategy
It is no surprise that children can sometimes behave poorly! What's important for your nanny is that you have an open and positive dialogue about how to approach bad behaviour. All adults need to lead by example with the children, and follow through on agreed discipline strategies.

Activity:
Do you have a discipline strategy that you have discussed with your nanny? What steps do you take if a child behaves badly? What steps would you like your nanny to take?

Remunerate fairly
Your nanny will feel secure and appreciated in her role with you if you remunerate fairly. Do your research and make sure you are paying a fair rate according to local standards. Pay your nanny overtime for additional hours worked, and compensate them with extra pay if you ask them to travel with you. Don't forget to leave money for expenses.

Activity:
Review your contract- does it list an overtime rate? Does it discuss holiday compensation?

Be organised and tidy
Most nannies start a new job with the intention of impressing their employers by not only caring for the children, but also leaving the home in a tidy and organised manner so that busy parents can relax after a hard day at work. It might upset your nanny to find that despite their efforts during the day, when they arrive in the mornings or after a weekend the house is a mess and they are left to clean it up. If everyone contributes to keeping the home organised, then it becomes a team effort which everyone appreciates, including the nanny!